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Tweet I was recently interviewed by Marketo for their Definitive Guide to Lead Nurturing eBook, and I wanted to share some ideas that didn’t find their way into the guide as well as some additional thoughts on lead nurturing with you. This is the essence of lead nurturing. Without relevance, lead nurturing becomes just another marketing campaign. Think relevance. MORE

Tweet What’s the quickest, cheapest way to implement lead nurturing? I get that question frequently when I talk to marketers about lead nurturing. Lead nurturing is pretty easy to understand, but hard to execute when you have little time or budget. thought I’d share my barest-bones lead nurturing strategy. I’ll do my best to resist the urge to elaborate. Step #1. MORE

Email may still be the workhorse in how B2B companies build relationships, maintain awareness, qualify leads and nudge prospects along the sales cycle, but these days, it pays to think about “lead nurturing” as more just an email campaign. The post 5 Ways to Expand Lead Nurturing Beyond the Inbox appeared first on The Point. That’s not because email is going away any time soon. MORE

Tweet Lead generation is somewhat like a tightrope act. Generate too many leads, and the rope between Sales and Marketing breaks. If you don’t generate enough leads that turn into sales, your ROI plummets. As Debbie Pryer, Program Manager, Siemens Healthcare , discovered, finding the right balance between lead quantity and quality takes trust, teamwork and planning. MORE

How does your sales team perceive the leads Marketing produces? They complain about lead quality. They complain about lead volume. The say leads, what leads? Marketing gives us leads? Lead generation is an iterative process that requires consistent closed-loop feedback. Centralize the lead qualification process. Be honest. Be flexible. MORE

She leads meetings and synthesizes group-think by illustrating discussions on a large mural, in real time. Last week I met a B2B solopreneur who performs visual facilitation. Julie's recent blog post is a perfect case study for B2B personas. read more. MORE

Tweet Putting customers first in lead generation. Complexity found in things like Marketing-qualified leads (MQLs), Sales-qualified leads (SQLs), opportunities, lead engagement scores and other KPIs are helpful to see trends and measure what we deem important to us, but something is often missing. That missing piece is customer empathy. You might also like. MORE

Sales Lead Management is a complicated process. Sales lead management is a tough subject to truly get your arms around. There are dozens of outside vendors who say they manage some portion of the sales lead process and more than two dozen internal departments that contribute to the process and the decision making. My point is this—you need a Sales Lead Manager to pull all of the competing departments and managers together to obtain the best revenue per lead for your company. Telemarketing Outbound (qualification and lead generation). Digital Agencies. MORE

Every discussion I’ve had with manufacturers and industrial companies starts with “we need more leads” or ends with “we need results.” I understand and accept the fact that the main goal of industrial marketing is to generate leads. have no issues with that but do these companies know what a qualified lead is? by Achinta Mitra appeared first on Industrial Marketing Today. MORE

My dad taught me many lessons growing up, and one that stands out as relevant to lead generation went something like this: He said, “Choose your friends carefully because we become like the people we spend most of our time with, and [like it or not] we’re judged by the company we keep.” In this post I’m going to explain how it applies to lead generation. You might also like. MORE

For a long time, “ lead nurturing ” was thought of as something you did with the leads that sales didn’t want. The theory was: leads come in, the sales team gets the hot ones, and the rest go to lead nurturing. Today, of course, a comprehensive lead nurturing strategy is much more than that. Currently we have a bunch of leads sitting in that “contacted” stage. MORE

In an era when “demand generation” and “content marketing” are virtually synonymous, most B2B sales leads are the result of a prospect downloading or requesting content. Most B2B marketers take for granted that content marketing will, by default, generate a wide spectrum of leads – some of them qualified, perhaps, but most just conducting informal research (the proverbial “tire kickers”). MORE

Tweet The management of sales leads is critical to generating marketing ROI. Sadly, Sadly, sales leads often land on the scrap heap because marketers throw leads over the wall and then expect salespeople to catch them. I was recently asked by someone how to utilize lead distribution to gain the best results. So do you invest your hard-won leads on your top performers, or do you try to help your weaker salespeople? Many of you reading this post do not have a choice of who you distribute leads to. The key is to match readiness of the lead (i.e., MORE

Results are in from a recent survey on B2B Lead Generation by the B2B Technology Marketing Community on LinkedIn ( free report download here ), and the numbers tell a disheartening story. At face value, it’s hard not to conclude based on this data that many B2B marketers are struggling to even measure lead generation success, let alone achieve it. Why is that? Here are my theories: 1. MORE

Tweet Marketing automation can help you manage lead nurturing efforts in a complex marketplace. In today’s B2B Lead Roundtable Blog post, we’ll look at three lead nurture tracks you should automate to aid your email marketing efforts from a MarketingSherpa Lead Gen Summit 2013 presentation featuring Keith Lincoln, Vice President of Marketing, SmartBear. Path #1. MORE

If you’re in B2B marketing, you’ve likely been hearing a lot about predictive lead scoring. If Google can guess what you’re about to search for—based on what you, and others have searched for previously—why shouldn’t your CRM and marketing automation system tell you which leads and accounts to prioritize, based on whom you’ve successfully sold to before? Smarketing”. MORE

In the corporate marketing departments where I've worked, a bone of contention has been, "What's the Lead Source?" For any given suspect/prospect/lead/opportunity in the funnel, what or who gets credit for bringing it in? Tags: B2B Buying Cycle B2B Lead Nurturing Business to Business (B2B read more. MORE

Tweet To be successful at lead generation, marketers can’t rely on one specific tactic. while ago, I created a mind map of lead generation channels for my book Lead Generation for the Complex Sale. I’ve updated it to include more content marketing and social media channels. How do you determine which channels are the best for generating leads and finding future customers? MORE

You may have noticed the B2B Lead Blog has a new look. Over the next few months, I’ll be starting a business and working on my next book, a sequel to Lead Generation for the Complex Sale. Back when I started this blog in 2003, I couldn’t find any place where people were sharing ideas related to lead generation and the complex sale. Image credit: PhotoDune. MORE

Read on to find out what B2B Lead Roundtable Blog posts were shared the most as well as the three topics B2B marketers valued most in 2014. Topic #1 — Lead generation is king. Lead generation was a huge topic for 2014 and for good reason. Every lead nurturing campaign, every lead conversion, every sale depends on first generating a lead. The difference? MORE

Tweet According to the MarketingSherpa 2012 Lead Generation Benchmark Report , 24% of marketers ask a timeline-to-purchase question on their lead capture forms. Q: Please select the most important fields that you need to collect from your leads on the lead generation form. Lead qualification in a post-BANT world. Lead qualification does not start with prospects. MORE

Tweet If Sales and Marketing were a manufacturing operation starting with raw materials — leads — and ending up with 5% to 20% in deliverable product — won sales — it would soon be shut down to determine what is wrong. However, companies continue to spend untold dollars on lead generation efforts ultimately doomed to fail. Lack of lead management impacts lead conversion and ROI. MORE

Have you ever wondered about how can you use LinkedIn for better lead generation and business. knew this was big, but I didn’t know how to use it until around 2010 when I found a couple of people who were successfully using LinkedIn to generate leads, but they were focused on internet marketers and solo-preneurs. Related resources: How to Use LinkedIn to Generate Leads. MORE

Tweet Getting to the heart of lead cost is not easy. In today’s B2B Lead Roundtable Blog post, I wanted to explore cost per lead by sharing a few tips and insights from the panel of industry experts that spoke on the subject at MarketingSherpa Lead Gen Summit 2013. Clearly define what a lead is for your organization. Move toward thinking of lead cost in aggregate. MORE

Definitions were set, processes were tested, sales and executives bought in across the board, and the panacea of the Lead Marketing Funnel brought peace to all. Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL ). At its simplest, a “marketing qualified lead” is a lead that has met some benchmark(s) that identifies it as having enough potential to warrant attention from your marketing department. MORE

Tweet Ask most executives and marketers what salespeople need to sell in this economy, and they will say one thing: more leads. That’s why many marketing and lead generation programs tend to focus on quantity. Unfortunately, as little as 5 to 15% of all marketing inquiries (aka leads) turn out to be truly sales-ready opportunities. challenge. Create a marketing funnel . MORE

The mantle of a "publisher" feels to me like a solemn duty that goes beyond lead gen. When I read the declaration "B2B marketers are the new publishers" I both cheer and cringe. cheer because publisher are empowered--"publishing" means taking charge of an entire platform of content. cringe because with power comes responsibility, and publishing is a big commitment to the readership (i.e., market). What's that about? read more. MORE

Demand Gen Report just published “ Top B2B Marketers Measure Lead Nurturing Effectiveness to Boost Performance ,” a special report in which they address the whys, whats, and how tos of measuring lead nurturing’s true impact. That, ultimately, is what lead nurturing is designed to do – move leads towards opportunity and close. The results were dramatic. MORE

Modern Marketers know it’s important to score leads, and lead scoring is a well-known best practice. However, not all lead scoring programs will do the job and in fact, some can actually harm your demand generation efforts if not developed correctly. When developing a lead scoring program, look at your data first. Your data will guide you in how to build lead scoring. MORE

Bear with me as I relate a quick story about lead nurturing: A few months back I became a sales lead. question: at this point, what kind of lead am I? By my own reckoning, I’m an MQL (Marketing Qualified Lead). Perhaps I was an SQL (Sales Qualified Lead) at one point in the conversation, but no longer. I’m also a perfect candidate for lead nurturing. MORE

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In the corporate marketing departments where I've worked, a bone of contention has been, "What's the Lead Source?" For any given suspect/prospect/lead/opportunity in the funnel, what or who gets credit for bringing it in? Tags: B2B Buying Cycle B2B Lead Nurturing Business to Business (B2B read more.

She leads meetings and synthesizes group-think by illustrating discussions on a large mural, in real time. Last week I met a B2B solopreneur who performs visual facilitation. Julie's recent blog post is a perfect case study for B2B personas. read more.

The mantle of a "publisher" feels to me like a solemn duty that goes beyond lead gen. When I read the declaration "B2B marketers are the new publishers" I both cheer and cringe. cheer because publisher are empowered--"publishing" means taking charge of an entire platform of content. cringe because with power comes responsibility, and publishing is a big commitment to the readership (i.e., market). What's that about? read more.

For a long time, “ lead nurturing ” was thought of as something you did with the leads that sales didn’t want. The theory was: leads come in, the sales team gets the hot ones, and the rest go to lead nurturing. Today, of course, a comprehensive lead nurturing strategy is much more than that. Currently we have a bunch of leads sitting in that “contacted” stage.

distribution and lead nurturing, to more effectively communicate with prospective buyers at each stage of funnel. To get a more granular view of how B2B marketing professionals are adapting to these trends and pressures, we asked 25 leading influencers. preference, lead generation) isn't new, just more intense. its role beyond lead gen. Tom has been published on leading.

Every discussion I’ve had with manufacturers and industrial companies starts with “we need more leads” or ends with “we need results.” I understand and accept the fact that the main goal of industrial marketing is to generate leads. have no issues with that but do these companies know what a qualified lead is? by Achinta Mitra appeared first on Industrial Marketing Today.

Tweet If Sales and Marketing were a manufacturing operation starting with raw materials — leads — and ending up with 5% to 20% in deliverable product — won sales — it would soon be shut down to determine what is wrong. However, companies continue to spend untold dollars on lead generation efforts ultimately doomed to fail. Lack of lead management impacts lead conversion and ROI.

Tweet Lead generation is somewhat like a tightrope act. Generate too many leads, and the rope between Sales and Marketing breaks. If you don’t generate enough leads that turn into sales, your ROI plummets. As Debbie Pryer, Program Manager, Siemens Healthcare , discovered, finding the right balance between lead quantity and quality takes trust, teamwork and planning.

Tweet Ask most executives and marketers what salespeople need to sell in this economy, and they will say one thing: more leads. That’s why many marketing and lead generation programs tend to focus on quantity. Unfortunately, as little as 5 to 15% of all marketing inquiries (aka leads) turn out to be truly sales-ready opportunities. challenge. Create a marketing funnel .

Email may still be the workhorse in how B2B companies build relationships, maintain awareness, qualify leads and nudge prospects along the sales cycle, but these days, it pays to think about “lead nurturing” as more just an email campaign. The post 5 Ways to Expand Lead Nurturing Beyond the Inbox appeared first on The Point. That’s not because email is going away any time soon.

Read on to find out what B2B Lead Roundtable Blog posts were shared the most as well as the three topics B2B marketers valued most in 2014. Topic #1 — Lead generation is king. Lead generation was a huge topic for 2014 and for good reason. Every lead nurturing campaign, every lead conversion, every sale depends on first generating a lead. The difference?

Demand Gen Report just published “ Top B2B Marketers Measure Lead Nurturing Effectiveness to Boost Performance ,” a special report in which they address the whys, whats, and how tos of measuring lead nurturing’s true impact. That, ultimately, is what lead nurturing is designed to do – move leads towards opportunity and close. The results were dramatic.

In an era when “demand generation” and “content marketing” are virtually synonymous, most B2B sales leads are the result of a prospect downloading or requesting content. Most B2B marketers take for granted that content marketing will, by default, generate a wide spectrum of leads – some of them qualified, perhaps, but most just conducting informal research (the proverbial “tire kickers”).

Tweet To be successful at lead generation, marketers can’t rely on one specific tactic. while ago, I created a mind map of lead generation channels for my book Lead Generation for the Complex Sale. I’ve updated it to include more content marketing and social media channels. How do you determine which channels are the best for generating leads and finding future customers?

distribution and lead nurturing, to more effectively communicate with prospective buyers at each stage of funnel. To get a more granular view of how B2B marketing professionals are adapting to these trends and pressures, we asked 25 leading influencers. preference, lead generation) isn't new, just more intense. its role beyond lead gen. Tom has been published on leading.

Tweet Getting to the heart of lead cost is not easy. In today’s B2B Lead Roundtable Blog post, I wanted to explore cost per lead by sharing a few tips and insights from the panel of industry experts that spoke on the subject at MarketingSherpa Lead Gen Summit 2013. Clearly define what a lead is for your organization. Move toward thinking of lead cost in aggregate.

You may have noticed the B2B Lead Blog has a new look. Over the next few months, I’ll be starting a business and working on my next book, a sequel to Lead Generation for the Complex Sale. Back when I started this blog in 2003, I couldn’t find any place where people were sharing ideas related to lead generation and the complex sale. Image credit: PhotoDune.

Have you ever wondered about how can you use LinkedIn for better lead generation and business. knew this was big, but I didn’t know how to use it until around 2010 when I found a couple of people who were successfully using LinkedIn to generate leads, but they were focused on internet marketers and solo-preneurs. Related resources: How to Use LinkedIn to Generate Leads.

Bear with me as I relate a quick story about lead nurturing: A few months back I became a sales lead. question: at this point, what kind of lead am I? By my own reckoning, I’m an MQL (Marketing Qualified Lead). Perhaps I was an SQL (Sales Qualified Lead) at one point in the conversation, but no longer. I’m also a perfect candidate for lead nurturing.

distribution and lead nurturing, to more effectively communicate with prospective buyers at each stage of funnel. To get a more granular view of how B2B marketing professionals are adapting to these trends and pressures, we asked 25 leading influencers. preference, lead generation) isn't new, just more intense. its role beyond lead gen. Tom has been published on leading.

Tweet I was recently interviewed by Marketo for their Definitive Guide to Lead Nurturing eBook, and I wanted to share some ideas that didn’t find their way into the guide as well as some additional thoughts on lead nurturing with you. This is the essence of lead nurturing. Without relevance, lead nurturing becomes just another marketing campaign. Think relevance.

Results are in from a recent survey on B2B Lead Generation by the B2B Technology Marketing Community on LinkedIn ( free report download here ), and the numbers tell a disheartening story. At face value, it’s hard not to conclude based on this data that many B2B marketers are struggling to even measure lead generation success, let alone achieve it. Why is that? Here are my theories: 1.

Tweet The management of sales leads is critical to generating marketing ROI. Sadly, Sadly, sales leads often land on the scrap heap because marketers throw leads over the wall and then expect salespeople to catch them. I was recently asked by someone how to utilize lead distribution to gain the best results. So do you invest your hard-won leads on your top performers, or do you try to help your weaker salespeople? Many of you reading this post do not have a choice of who you distribute leads to. The key is to match readiness of the lead (i.e.,

Tweet According to the MarketingSherpa 2012 Lead Generation Benchmark Report , 24% of marketers ask a timeline-to-purchase question on their lead capture forms. Q: Please select the most important fields that you need to collect from your leads on the lead generation form. Lead qualification in a post-BANT world. Lead qualification does not start with prospects.

How does your sales team perceive the leads Marketing produces? They complain about lead quality. They complain about lead volume. The say leads, what leads? Marketing gives us leads? Lead generation is an iterative process that requires consistent closed-loop feedback. Centralize the lead qualification process. Be honest. Be flexible.

Tweet What’s the quickest, cheapest way to implement lead nurturing? I get that question frequently when I talk to marketers about lead nurturing. Lead nurturing is pretty easy to understand, but hard to execute when you have little time or budget. thought I’d share my barest-bones lead nurturing strategy. I’ll do my best to resist the urge to elaborate. Step #1.

My dad taught me many lessons growing up, and one that stands out as relevant to lead generation went something like this: He said, “Choose your friends carefully because we become like the people we spend most of our time with, and [like it or not] we’re judged by the company we keep.” In this post I’m going to explain how it applies to lead generation. You might also like.

Tweet Putting customers first in lead generation. Complexity found in things like Marketing-qualified leads (MQLs), Sales-qualified leads (SQLs), opportunities, lead engagement scores and other KPIs are helpful to see trends and measure what we deem important to us, but something is often missing. That missing piece is customer empathy. You might also like.

If you’re in B2B marketing, you’ve likely been hearing a lot about predictive lead scoring. If Google can guess what you’re about to search for—based on what you, and others have searched for previously—why shouldn’t your CRM and marketing automation system tell you which leads and accounts to prioritize, based on whom you’ve successfully sold to before? Smarketing”.

Modern Marketers know it’s important to score leads, and lead scoring is a well-known best practice. However, not all lead scoring programs will do the job and in fact, some can actually harm your demand generation efforts if not developed correctly. When developing a lead scoring program, look at your data first. Your data will guide you in how to build lead scoring.

Definitions were set, processes were tested, sales and executives bought in across the board, and the panacea of the Lead Marketing Funnel brought peace to all. Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL ). At its simplest, a “marketing qualified lead” is a lead that has met some benchmark(s) that identifies it as having enough potential to warrant attention from your marketing department.

Sales Lead Management is a complicated process. Sales lead management is a tough subject to truly get your arms around. There are dozens of outside vendors who say they manage some portion of the sales lead process and more than two dozen internal departments that contribute to the process and the decision making. My point is this—you need a Sales Lead Manager to pull all of the competing departments and managers together to obtain the best revenue per lead for your company. Telemarketing Outbound (qualification and lead generation). Digital Agencies.

Tweet Marketing automation can help you manage lead nurturing efforts in a complex marketplace. In today’s B2B Lead Roundtable Blog post, we’ll look at three lead nurture tracks you should automate to aid your email marketing efforts from a MarketingSherpa Lead Gen Summit 2013 presentation featuring Keith Lincoln, Vice President of Marketing, SmartBear. Path #1.